Explore, explore, explore

I know what you're all wondering. And yes, I did fall off the face of the earth for the past five days. I dove gracefully straight into a newly formed, multicultural, magnetic mass of people known thus far simply as "the Gang." There are about ten-twenty of us at any given event, originating from countries such as Germany, Denmark, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Pakistan, the U.S., and England. We are all ages and all personalities and all down for a good time, no matter what the venue. I'll have to try to get a picture of us all together to provide you a visual aid :).

This past weekend was dominated by orientation events: a surprisingly competitive Campus Race (team picture to the left), my first Australian barbecue (delicious!), a powerpoint presentation to cover all essential information, another presentation on the highly-esteemed Northwest Trip (more coverage to come), another stir-fry welcome dinner, a contest to build an object representative of Australia out of aluminum foil (I suggest Steve Irwin with a sting ray barb through his chest.. a risky call, but we won the gold!), etc etc. In between all of these, random time-killing. There's a rec room and some basketball courts nearby that we find ourselves wandering over to. An eight-minute eastbound walk will find you in the Kardinya shopping area.. let's talk about Australian shopping for a minute here.

Targets, Kmarts, yes they're here.. but only for clothes. Cole's and IGA, instead, are the grocery stores... but I can guarantee I will never buy some items in those aisles. Not because Australia has concocted awful-sounding foods, because of prices. $6.00 for a tub of ice cream?! $19.99 for a kilogram of snap peas!? No string cheese to be found at all?! Midwesterners, enjoy your dirt-cheap dairy. Other than that, a once-over of the store looks remarkably similar to the States. Only minor differences - e.g., "Weeties" vs "Wheaties," "Rice Puffs" vs "Chex" - reveal themselves. Sooo for now I've got the essentials: cereal, bread, PB and J, eggs, yogurts, crackers, salad fixings, and of course, Tim Tams, Australia's gold medalist of desserts, globally renowned chocolatey divine wafer/cookie that has the secret function of a straw if you bite the corners off. Try it! They can be found in a U.S. Target near you.

In general, the prices here are a fair bit higher than what we're used to at home. The good news, though, is that Australian minimum wage is $15.00 an hour.. yes, let it sink in... it takes a couple years, minimum, at one job to get that in the States! Because of that, I'm striving to find a job. Any job. But so are a lot of other students.. which could make the search a bleak one.

Oh! But I digress from the topic of free time here. When I'm home, my roommates and I all tend to wander in and out of the living room area, randomly doing this and discussing that. There's Lisa, who is still rarely seen but kind; Sally, who teaches every day but is guaranteed to give great conversation and a laugh when she's home; Vicky, from Hong Kong, one of the most endearing and genuine girls I've ever known; and Tom, another Aussie who just moved in yesterday but is similarly cheerful and witty. An excellent bunch to get roomed with, I must say. Vicky and I ended up enjoying lunch together-- she made us "her favorite meal!" of beef tortellini-type pasta with a creamy cheese sauce and salmon. Yumm!!!

I've decided that one of my favorite things to do is just to walk/jog and explore the area by myself... there are some pictures on the left of the suburbs that are all around campus. I really had no idea what to expect of Australian architecture, but it's a very aesthetic mix of Wisconsin and Arizona, I feel.. there's a lot of vegetation, and very diverse. Leafy trees, spikey trees, orange trees, lemon trees, flowering trees. Bushes, ferns, flowers of every color, but only a thin sheet of grass. The buildings are most often made of bricks, one or two stories with an overhang along the driveway instead of a garage. Actually, cars also seem to make their way onto the lawnspace by the sidewalks! I once looked down a side street and saw grocery carts ("trolleys" here, by the way) dotting every yard. My first thought was "Hm! Looks like Australia really is full of petty criminals..." but remembered hearing that it was customary to bring your trolley home from the grocery store and just bring it back later. How cool is that?!

I have yet to discover the actual city of Perth, but today our study abroad team has a trip set up for us to go to Fremantle, a little more hoppin' suburb along the coast to the east. In fact, I need to shower and get ready for that right now! I promise to write again, sooner than last time. Cheers! :)

Woops

Turns out my body needed a nap that lasted a solid twelve hours, oops! If you stand in my living room and look out the floor-to-ceiling glass doors, the view is awesome: the community pool is 50 yards away, the surrounding pathways illuminated by small, walk lights. The stillness is serene. I think I'll stay up for a bitski and read some Bill Bryson in the company of my acoustic studs Jack Johnson and Donavon Frankenreiter.

Oh! And here's my mailing address, if anybody feels so inclined:

Flat No. 122, Room 2

Murdoch University Village

Canningvale PO Box 1055

WA 6970, Australia

Please feel free to send me letters, cards, treats, pictures, anything!! Also, leave comments below!! I feel lonely writing solo on here. :)

Ahh sweet Perth... in mid-winter??

That's right, fellow Midwesterns at home, in the dead of Australian winter this city Perth can barely survive a sunny sky, lows of 30 degrees (Fahrenheit), and not a drop of precipitation. Excuse me? I'm used to that sort of weather report appearing in pleasant fall and spring, not winter. Where are the 5-foot snow banks? The frostbite? The black ice? Oh well. I guess it's something I could get used to, hey?

Just like, say, a metropolis loaded with, not skyscrapers and a high crime rate, but equal parts green space and one- or two-story homes along sprawling bike paths and rivers being fully taken advantage of. I could get used to every stranger I come across stunning me with his or her raw kindness and genuity. As soon as I was seated on my plane from L.A. into Brisbane, I was startled to hear laughy chitchat amongst the passengers... something pure-bred Americans dare not do. I was easily caught up into conversation with those seated nearby, asking about my studies, their travels, the potential of our mid-flight meals. I loved these people already.

I was fortunate enough to be seated next to Sharon, a 24-year-old wine marketer and one of my newfound friends. Upon arrival in Brisbane she helped me find my way off the plane and through customs (by the way, despite Australian security bypass checking any shoes, jackets, liquids or gels, I still managed to get stopped and interrogated about food items that needed to be quarantined), to the baggage claim, through check-in, back through security, to a bathroom to wash our faces/brush our teeth, and via bus to the domestic terminal. A thousand, thousand thanks!! :)

Five hours later I landed in Perth, destination of destinations. I scooped up my bags (after they were again sniffed by interrogating security dog) and was escorted by Charlie, my charming, elderly limo/van-driver, the remaining 15 miles to the Murdoch Student Village.

And here I am now, in my cozy five-bedroom flat, temporarily holed up in my room to sneak in a nap. I've met two of my roommates- Lisa, still-shy in just her second semester of college, and Sally, the self-designated "old duck" at 27, a teacher finishing up some sort of Australian education that I think I understand but really don't feel like attempting to explain outside my head.

So, 18,000 miles from home, slightly unsettled at the complete unfamiliarity around me yet still somehow quite comfortable, I am going to see what sort of dreams and Australian nap will bring me. Cheers!